


one moment

by chadsuke



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-07-14 19:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16046936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chadsuke/pseuds/chadsuke
Summary: Hohenheim decides, homunculus or not, Envy is his son. This changes everything.





	1. Chapter 1

It’s a moment. A single breathe of a second, as Hohenheim watches the rise and fall of his son’s chest. Golden hair splays across the pillow, and he reaches down to brush a single strand out of his face.

At that, he stirs. Blank golden eyes stare up at him, and there’s not a single ounce of recognition in his face. “Who…?”

His heart clenches. He knew. He’s known, all along – it was a failure. Dante had taken one look at their final product, one look at the end of their transmutation, and shaken her head. Philosopher’s Stone or not – this isn’t their son. He’s a homunculus. He’s a fake.

And yet…

“Dad,” Hohenheim tells him gently, helping the groggy boy to a sitting position. “I’m your father, remember?”

The boy rubs his face, nodding slowly. “Yeah… Yeah. That feels… right,” he says, and then he looks up at him. “Who am I?”

Hohenheim doesn’t care. Perhaps this isn’t the son he’s lost, the one he’s now buried in the ground. Perhaps this is a new being, a new creature, a Homunculus wearing the face of his son, and yet… _Well_ , he thinks, _today must just be a birth_.

“My son,” the man says, and he embraces him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seven years ago, in 2011, i started an fma03 fanfic. i wrote 115 chapters, 27k, and never finished it.
> 
> today, i dug it up out of the back of my docs and i'm rewriting the whole thing. this is the first chapter of many to come. enjoy!
> 
> tags will be added as they become relevant.


	2. Chapter 2

She introduces herself as Dante. “Your mother,” his father says, and yet the boy can see very carefully how she never refers to herself as such. She’s not cruel to him, oh no, but she doesn’t treat him as one would treat a son.

Perhaps in another life, in another world, he would never know the difference, never see – but with Father right there, holding him, touching him, reassuring himself that yes, his son is here every single moment, how can he not compare?

The boy worries his lip in his teeth, kicking his legs on his seat and letting his toes dance across the carpet. Father is sitting right there, right next to him, reading in his armchair, and- “Dad,” he says, because that’s what he introduced himself with and that’s what the boy will use, even if it’s a little odd at the moment. “What… what happened to me?”

His father stills, crinkling the newspaper in his grasp. For a moment, the boy thinks that he won’t answer. That his father will say nothing and this question will continue to weigh so heavy, because what happened, why does he not remember, what what what-

After a long pause, he sets down the newspaper and lifts his glasses to rub at his eyes. “You died,” Father says, softly. “And we brought you back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter two!
> 
> this fic is now going to be updated MWF, for the forseeable future. the chapters are drabbles, so they're obvs quick writes. thank you so much for reading! you can find me on my new writing tumblr, ftcoye, where i take drabble prompts.
> 
> thanks again for the support!


	3. Chapter 3

“How?” is his next question, asked three days later.

This world is so strange to him – so new and yet so familiar at the same time. His parents feel familiar, and he knows the path through his home so well his feet take him to places he doesn’t consciously remember, but… he doesn’t truly have his memories. The pictures on the wall mean nothing to him. That trip to the beach – the image of him going off to school – him surrounded by who he assumes are friends… none of that mean anything to him.

So it takes him a few days to realize that wait, it isn’t typical at all to bring someone back.

Father refuses to answer – so it’s Dante he goes to, because he hasn’t left the house since he awoke and she is the only one there to tell him. “Alchemy,” she says simply. “We are expert alchemists, and bringing you back was child’s play. We merely needed the right ingredients.”

Ingredients. He’s… ingredients, and the boy doesn’t know how to feel.

That evening, he draws an alchemy circle from memory on a piece of paper and presses his hands to it. It’s familiar – it’s something he feels like he’s done hundreds, if not thousands of times before.

Nothing happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> you can find me on my writing blog, ftcoye, where i take drabble prompts. see you monday!


	4. Chapter 4

He leaves the house.

He’s not certain if he is supposed to, but he does regardless, stepping outside and tracing a familiar path that he discovers leads to a _town._ He stops in the street and takes it all in – it’s known, and yet not. Familiar and yet strange.

Someone calls an unfamiliar name right behind him and slaps a hand on his arm and he turns around sharply to see a- a girl, one who looks to be his own age. There’s another boy, the same as both of them, late teens, racing up behind and they both beam at him. “It’s good to see you up and about!” she says, and she smiles. “You’re feeling better, then?”

They- know him.

Or knew him, rather, because the boy isn’t sure that his old self and his new self could be counted as one and the same, because how can he be the same person if he doesn’t remember anything? “Yes,” he says, and he tries a small smile back. “I’m fine.”

The unfamiliar-yet-familiar other boy rolls his eyes. “And you didn’t think to tell us?”

“I haven’t left the house til now,” he says, and the two exchange surprised looks.

The girl frowns. “Are… are you sure you’re fine?”

He considers it – considers everything that’s happened since he awoke, and how he feels in his core. Considers his mother and his father and everything around him and-

“Yes,” he lies. “I’m perfectly fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr as 'ftcoye', where i take drabble requests. thanks!


	5. Chapter 5

“Where have you been!?” Dante snaps the second he walks in the door, Father hovering right beside her. He looks angry as well – both of them furious, worried, and it both makes him feel warm from the comfort and as hotly angry as they are.

“I’m an adult, aren’t I?” he snaps back, because that’s the impression he got from how he and his _friends,_ he supposes they are, interacted. “You can’t- You can’t bring me back and then lock me away.”

Father tries to calm it. “We’re just worried,” he says, and he does look so very worried. “We’re not experts on the alchemy we used, we don’t-“

“Is that why I can’t remember anything?” His words stop his parents in their tracks. “I don’t remember you, I don’t remember this, I don’t remember dying – and alchemy won’t work for me. What did you _do_?”

Father is at a loss for words. Dante, _Mother,_ surveys him with sharp eyes. “We did all we could,” she says.

He snarls, marching past them and up the stairs, slamming the door to his bedroom and throwing a book at the wall because he has all this pent-up anger.

His name won’t even stick, feels like it slides off like butter every time someone tries to use it on him, and he can’t remember and he can’t use alchemy and he can’t he can’t he can’t.

 _All we could_ isn’t good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! see you on friday!


	6. Chapter 6

Someone leaves food at the door, one of his parents, and the boy eats it even though he never really feels hungry. Too angry, maybe.

Too tired.

He sleeps a lot, and he reads through all his books on alchemy because he cannot _remember_ reading any of them and only leaves the room to use the lavatory. No one knocks at his door, not for awhile – he can’t keep track of time, or doesn’t, rather – until finally, finally, there’s a knock on his door.

“Come in,” he says, and it’s his father. The man, familiar and not, hovers in the doorway for a moment, before he comes in and sits next to his son on his bed.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and he stops and the boy snarls at him.

“Why?”

“For making you this unhappy,” Father says, and he looks at him with such sorrow in his eyes. “We wanted you back, so badly – we hoped you would keep your memories, but that was… a loss we could handle. I didn’t realize it would hurt you so much.”

He wants to rage, he wants to scream at him and shake him and be so angry but-

But.

Is there anything that can even be done? Anything that can even be changed?

“If you tell me _everything,_ ” the boy says, looking down at his clenched fists and unable to look at his Father. “Then… I’ll forgive you, a little.”

Even though he’s not looking, he can hear the smile in Father’s voice, the sheer relief. “A little forgiveness is all I want,” he says. “I’ll tell you everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr as 'ftcoye', where i take drabble prompts. see you on monday!


	7. Chapter 7

He loved alchemy. He was always a bit rebellious, but still very studious, very intelligent. The next alchemic genius, both his parents thought. The boy and girl he met in town were his very best friends who had been very worried about him, and had in fact swung by while he had holed himself up in his room to check on him.

He always snacked on fruit while he studied because they were more hydrating than other foods so it was less effort than drinking and eating – he really liked children but never wanted any of his own –

On and on and on and on.

Father told him anecdotes, explained picture albums. Told a time he had broken his swing by piling himself and all the other kids on top of it so that it simply collapsed and Father and Mother had rushed out, certain there would be tears but everyone was laughing instead.

How he always made their birthday presents with his alchemy, and so they have some very misshapen statues on one of their bookshelves from when he was younger.

More and more and more and none of the memories stick but none of them slide off like his name and he feels just a little more whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a day late, sorry! it was my sisters 21st bday yesterday, so i was a bit busy.
> 
> see you tomorrow! as always you can find me on tumblr as 'ftcoye', where i take drabble requests.


	8. Chapter 8

He emerges for dinner.

There’s a softness to both his parents gaze when they look at him, when he sits down with them and eats. Mother reaches over to take his hand. “I am glad you are with us once more,” she says, and the boy inclines his head slightly.

A name should perhaps be his next step – for his former one refuses to stay – but he doesn’t feel whole enough, yet. Does not feel as though he is a person.

“I will be going out,” he says, and Father’s brow furrows.

“Now?”

The boy shakes his head. “Not now, but… I will be free, overall. I do not wish to be kept inside. Maybe I am not exactly who I was, but I still get to be out as I wish.”

His parents exchange glances over the table, and Father inclines his head. “As long as you’re careful.”

Mother nods. “We can’t let anyone know what happened.”

That seems puzzling to him – he realizes it’s not normal, but… is it so wrong? Is he so strange? But he agrees anyway. “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr as 'ftcoye', where i take drabble requests. see you friday!


End file.
